


Burning in Red

by Moontyger



Category: Vampire Knight
Genre: F/M, M/M, Yuletide, challenge:Yuletide 2008, recipient:Kei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-25 15:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moontyger/pseuds/Moontyger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The blood is the life,” or so it was said, but Zero had never before realized how deep the connection was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning in Red

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Karanguni and Voksen for their beta reading skills!

A Hunter's education encompassed many facts about vampires. Their different levels, their powers, the way they hunted and fed. How to detect them and what their vulnerabilities were. Everything Hunters had learned over the centuries, and yet, there were still things they didn't teach, still facts they either didn't know or didn't consider important. Now that he saw things from the other side, experienced things that had only been theory before, gaps Zero had never realized were there, that he doubted other Hunters saw, made themselves apparent.

They'd told him that vampires could smell blood over a great distance; mentioned that they could recognize people by the scent of their blood. But they'd never said how delicious it could smell, how intoxicating it was, like a garden of roses under the heat of the summer sun. He'd never read anything, not a single word, about the way a vampire's emotions for someone could make the scent stronger, harder to resist; nothing that prepared him for the way even a hint of Yuki's sweat, much less her blood, drew him no matter how far away he was. It was hard to be around her, hard to resist her blood when she offered, like being in a bakery when he was starving and had no money. It was a torment, especially when he was hungry. And he was _always_ hungry.

He hadn't expected that: neither the constant hunger, nor the way it affected him. It kept him from sleeping and left him unable to concentrate; led him to seek solitude even more than before just to escape the temptation. He hadn't expected how _sexual_ it felt to drink from a human, never anticipated the way that hunger and arousal mixed, intertwining so they became indistinguishable. And he never could have imagined how much he could taste in someone's blood: their thoughts, their emotions, their desires... "The blood is the life," or so it was said, but he'd never before realized how deep the connection was.

Had he known, he might never have accepted Yuki's offer; might have refused her even if it meant his own destruction. She tasted of youth and innocence, but that wasn't what hurt. It was her desire and, yes, love for Kaname Kuran that cut, that made every sip bittersweet agony. It wasn't that she didn't care for Zero, but he tasted none of the adoration she felt for Kuran, none of the taste that lingered for days and led him to despair. If he could have, he'd have never touched her again.

Kuran's blood was different. He tasted of passion, of obsession and desire, but most of all, of power. Power Zero had never dreamed existed; power that he doubted even most other vampires really grasped. He felt drunk with it from the first taste, swaying on his feet after a single swallow. He might have fallen if Kaname hadn't held him up, pressing him closer, surrounding him with the scent that had already overwhelmed him, making it even harder to stand and impossible to think. He'd promised himself that he'd only take a little, just enough to keep himself from falling to Level E, but he didn't want to stop. He could taste overwhelming love and desire for Yuki in it; could taste Kuran's contempt for him as well, and it just didn't matter. His head was spinning and he was suddenly, humiliatingly, aroused; yet, even knowing that Kuran must have noticed, even though he was perfectly aware that it would be just one more thing he had to hold over Zero's head, he couldn't bring himself to care. All that mattered was that he didn't push him away.

But then, inevitably, he did, tearing his fangs from his throat and holding Zero at arm's length. He held him there with ease, with no visible strain at all, even as Zero fought his grip, struggling to reach him and drink more of the blood he hadn't thought he wanted; blood he didn't want to desire, but now doubted he would ever stop. He was out of control, helpless before his hunger, just as he had feared for so long. Not even his humiliation at being seen like this by his hated rival was enough to make him stop.

Kuran's eyes glowed red and his smile was cold, but there was something else in it as well, something Zero couldn't quite name. "How good you look," he whispered, the words spoken more softly than a human could hear, "smeared with my blood." He pulled Zero close again, nuzzling his neck in a way that made his stomach clench. "Once again, you owe me. Blood for blood sounds fair as a partial payment, don't you think?"

Without waiting for an answer, he bared his fangs and bit.

  



End file.
